Huge rise in Britain’s secretive arms sales to Saudi Arabia

Labour’s Emily Thornberry says the government is ‘fuelling’ Saudi war in Yemen, as new figures show ‘secret’ arms exports have soared

The UK has been accused of concealing the true extent of its support for Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign in Yemen by overseeing a vast rise in the use of secretive arms exports licenses, Middle East Eye can reveal

The dramatic new figures on the opaque open licence system, which keeps the value of arms and their exact nature out of the public domain, come as Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi crown prince and chief architect of the war in Yemen, is due to visit London on Wednesday to meet Prime Minister Theresa May.

The UK has used standard arms licences to approve more than $6.4bn in arms to Saudi Arabia since the start of the war in Yemen in 2015, including advanced jets and munitions.

But figures seen exclusively by Middle East Eye show that the government has actively overseen a more than 75 per cent increase in the use of secretive “open licences” to approve additional arms sales to the kingdom, including vital parts for the jets striking targets in Yemen.

The rules for open licences was updated by government in 2015. They are difficult to track and allow for multiple consignments of arms to be sent to the same destination without public scrutiny or parliamentary oversight.

The government has repeatedly defended arms export to Saudi Arabia, a key regional and security ally, but Emily Thornberry, Labour’s shadow foreign secretary, has accused Theresa May’s government of trying “to hide its role in fuelling” the war in Yemen.

She told MEE: “Instead of seizing their responsibility to help stop this dreadful war, the government is just trying to hide its role in fuelling it.”

The world’s forgotten humanitarian crisis

The conflict in Yemen killed more than 10,000 people – many of whom were civilians who died in Saudi-led coalition air strikes. Millions more civilians face starvation and disease in a humanitarian crisis aid agencies say has largely been ignored by world powers.

The conflict has reached an effective stalemate. It includes a blockade that the UN says has left more than eight million civilians facing a famine.

Last month MEE revealed that the Saudi-led coalition is investigating less than 15 percent of more than 300 alleged violations of international law carried out by its forces in the country.

Anti-arms trade campaigners say the opaque open licences, which include spare parts for strike aircraft as well as missiles, play a deadly role in the conflict as they are key to keeping the Saudi air force in the air above Yemen.

“Without the arms sales, spare parts and assistance from the UK and the US, the air war over Yemen would stop within 48 hours,” said one former military source.

The data, compiled by Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT), shows that last year 36 licences were granted for 707 items of military or dual-use hardware for export to Saudi Arabia, up from 28 licences and 163 pieces of military kit in 2015.

In total, the government has approved 85 seperate open licences and more than 1,127 items of military or dual-use equipment under the system since the start of the Yemen conflict. These include licences for aircraft and helicopter components, vital for continuing the Saudi-led bombardment of Yemen, as well as missiles, machine guns and sniper rifles.

Source:Website